Features

• Tree ferns grow from rhizomes, horizontal, fleshy stems that dwell underground or at the soil surface. Rhizomes on tree ferns anchor in the soil with adventitious and fibrous roots but grow upright toward the light. The effect is a trunk-like stem covered in thatchy fibers, dark scales and old leaf bases.
  
  

Types

• Gardeners in frost-free regions or who have a conservatory greenhouse may be most familiar with the Australian tree ferns (Cyathea spp.), soft tree ferns (Dicksonia spp.) or hard ferns (Blechnum spp.).
  
  

Growth Considerations

• Tree ferns grow only from the tip of the rhizome, from which new fronds emerge. The fronds unroll, colloquially called fiddleheads, as they resemble the instrument's handle, revealing fronds with a main stem base called petiole. This petiole becomes the rachis where branching occurs and leaflets grow. Ferns reproduce with spores that occur on frond leaflet undersides.